UK court rules against dying man’s bid for assisted suicide

LONDON – Britain’s Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt from a terminally ill man to overturn the country’s blanket ban on assisted suicide, ruling that such a decision needs to be made by politicians in Parliament.

In a decision released on Wednesday, judges expressed their “deep sympathy” with Noel Conway, a 68-year-old man with motor neuron disease who is wheelchair-bound and requires nearly constant help to breathe. Conway argued that British law’s outlawing of assisted suicide infringed upon the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ruling judges said it was “virtually unanimous” that Parliament was a better forum for deciding whether to legalize assisted suicide than the courts. Conway has previously said he doesn’t plan to die immediately, but wants the option of an assisted death in his final months.